President of the Republic László Sólyom on Friday inaugurated the renovated chapel dedicated to the fallen Hungarian soldiers of the Battles of the Isonzo in the Italian village of Visintini, part of Doberdo del Lago.
The chapel brings the presence of their home to those Hungarian soldiers laid to rest in a foreign land, Sólyom said.
The Battles of Isonzo took a heavy toll on both the armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy for two and a half years starting in the summer of 1915. About a hundred thousand Hungarian soldiers died in the battles. Many of the Hungarians were from the Great Plains region and were challenged by the mountainous terrain and the weather extremes of the area.
The renovation of the chapel as well as the ecumenical mass at its inauguration far exceed legal obligations, Sólyom said. "It proves that moral authority continues to live in both [the Hungarian and the Italian] peoples."
Hungarian soldiers started building the Hungarian Chapel in 1918, but the structure remained unfinished. The renovation of the existing structure and work to complete it started last autumn. The project was financed by the Széchenyi Scientific Association and the Foundation for the City of Újfehértó, from where 27 of the fallen soldiers interred in the chapel came.
Also participating at the inauguration ceremony were Hungarian Army Chief of Staff László Tömböl, Foreign Affairs State Secretary Vilmos Szabó, the mayor of Doberdo del Lago, the head of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, Slovenia's State Secretary of Defense Uros Krek and Managing Chairman of the Széchenyi Scientific Association Miklós Szunai.
After the inauguration, Sólyom visited the Monte San Michele war monument and laid a wreathe at the cemetery in Fogliano Redipuglia, where a hundred thousand Italian soldiers are buried, as well as at the Austro-Hungarian Soldiers Cemetery.
Source: Múlt-kor
